‘Sydney loves a winner’: AFL has opportunity to strike while city’s two teams are hot | Martin Pegan

Midway through September, Sydney is enjoying a boom in Australian rules football, with the city’s two AFL teams having become two of the hottest tickets in town. And after a battle for the ages between the pair under the spotlight of last weekend’s qualifying final, league bosses should be salivating over the prospect of a rematch on a much grander stage.

Sydney are one win from a grand final after coming from the clouds to overrun the precocious 13-year-old club from the other side of the city in an epic encounter at the SCG. It took a masterful performance from Isaac Heeney for the minor premiers to stay in the game until enough Swans lifted alongside their star midfielder to snatch the rights to a home preliminary final.

Separate routes to this year’s flag decider have opened up following that result, though Greater Western Sydney have rarely taken the most straightforward path through September. They must go the long way again – the Giants have made the finals in seven of the past nine years, but have only played three of their 17 matches at the pointy end of the season on home turf.

GWS were the better side for much of last week’s fiery clash but now must make the most of their double chance when returning home to face last year’s runner-up Brisbane at Engie Stadium. The Giants have had the better of the Lions in their two clashes this year, and can bank on their pillars at each end in Jesse Hogan and Sam Taylor while their midfields are more evenly matched.

More than 17,000 tickets have already been sold for the semi-final on Saturday night, enough to make the AFL confident of a sell-out and perhaps even of pushing the Giants’ home crowd record of 21,924 when they hosted their local rivals in 2017. It is a welcome change after the Giants again had the AFL’s lowest average home crowds this season despite being among the premiership contenders. An average 12,028 fans have attended their eight matches in Homebush, as well as 12,932 in three visits to their second home in Canberra.

But there are signs that the growing pains might be easing with 21,235 fans at GWS’s opening round fixture against Collingwood and just under 20,000 at the mid-season Sydney derby, while their average home crowds have risen 20.8% on last year even before this week’s final. The Giants have also set a club record with 36,629 members following a 10.9% increase on last year.

The well-established Swans, on the other hand, have set a club record for home crowds this year, as they set the pace with 13 victories from their opening 14 matches to all but lock in top spot before winter had settled in. The wheels then fell off with five defeats in six matches, but the Swans have since steadied and finished with 17 wins as their equal-most in a home-and-away season as well as their biggest average home crowds of 38,202. The Swans have also reached their own new membership mark with 73,757 signing up for a 12.9% rise.

There were 43,189 fans – including a reasonable smattering in orange and charcoal – at the SCG last Saturday for the fourth edition of a Sydney derby final since the Giants’ coming of age in 2016. But the highly-anticipated contest between two of the most exciting teams in the land missed an opportunity to surpass the 60,222 that watched the finals rivalry first come alive.

That inaugural finals meeting was held at what is now Accor Stadium, and was also the last time the Swans hosted a match at the venue. The club then committed to playing all home games at the SCG for the next 30 years. But with the capacity of the SCG said to be 46,817, according to the AFL, and “sold out” matches such as against Carlton and Geelong this year coming in at under 45,000, Sydney’s success is taking them to the brink of outgrowing their preferred home.

A return to Accor Stadium for the Swans’ marquee matches and finals should now be reconsidered. And whether or not the Swans and Giants meet again on the last Saturday in September, a follow up clash next year in front of as many fans as possible is one worth exploring. The Giants could even reignite the idea of hosting powerhouse clubs from south of the border at the SCG to make up the shortfall, as the AFL searches for old and new approaches to build on enthusiasm in the market.

“Sydney loves a winner” is an all too common but begrudgingly accurate refrain, and the keen interest in the Swans and Giants at the moment has as always been boosted by on-field success as much as their off-field marketing. There is still much to play out before the rivals lock in an all-Sydney grand final, but it is hard not to cast an eye forward to a potential game-changer for football in NSW that must not be wasted.